TVPI: The PE Metric That Flatters Every Fund Manager (And How to See Through It)
TVPI: The PE Metric That Flatters Every Fund Manager (And How to See Through It) Vista Equity Partners Fund VII is sitting at an estimated 1.3x–1.7x TVPI as of 2024. Sounds like progress. But the fund's DPI — the cash...
DPI vs TVPI: The LP Metric That Actually Matters in 2026
TVPI (Total Value to Paid-In) includes unrealized paper gains. In 2026, LPs are demanding DPI because distributions fell to 6% of AUM, the lowest recorded level, while nine consecutive vintages failed
Subscription Credit Lines: The PE Tool That Makes Your IRR Look Better Than It Is
Private Equity Subscription Credit Lines: The PE Tool That Makes Your IRR Look Better Than It Is By Jeff Barnes, MBA | Angel Investors Network | June 24, 2026 TL;DR: Subscription credit lines let G...
Vintage Year in Private Equity: Why Your Entry Timing Shapes Returns More Than the Manager
The 400-Basis-Point Gap Nobody Talks About Imagine you commit capital to the same private equity firm twice. Same GP. Same strategy. Same team. Two different years. One commitment earns a 16.58% ne...
DPI in Private Equity: The Metric That Tells You When You Actually Get Paid
TL;DR: According to ILPA's formal definition , DPI (Distributed to Paid-In Capital) captures cumulative distributions at the fund level, net of fees and carry. It is the only private equity metric
TVPI in Private Equity: What It Means and Why LPs Track It
According to Carta's Q4 2024 fund performance data , only 39% of 2018 vintage venture capital funds had a TVPI (Total Value to Paid-In) at or above 2.0x as of the end of 2024. That means six years
Private Credit Fundraising Fatigue in 2026: 188 Funds, 23-Month Closes, and the Retail Redemption Reckoning
TL;DR: Only 188 private credit funds closed in 2024, the lowest count since 2011 and down from 255 in 2023. Median fund-closing time hit 23+ months in Q1 2025, the longest since 2008. The top 5
MOIC: The Private Equity Performance Metric That Tells You Magnitude Without Time
TL;DR: MOIC (Multiple on Invested Capital) measures how many times a fund returned your original investment. Formula: MOIC = Total Value (Realized + Unrealized) / Total Invested Capital. It tells you
The J-Curve in Private Equity: Why Your Fund Looks Terrible in Year One
The bottom line: In a typical buyout fund, your reported net asset value drops to roughly 80 cents on every committed dollar by year 3.5 before it ever climbs back. That is not a warning sign. It is..
IRR in Private Equity: The Metric Funds Use to Sell You on Returns
TL;DR: Across 12,306 private capital funds totaling $10.5 trillion in AUM, the median net IRR is 9.1%, barely above long-run public market returns once you strip out IRR's mathematical quirks. Oxford.
DPI in Private Equity: The One Performance Metric That Actually Tells the Truth
TL;DR: DPI (distributions to paid-in capital) is the only private equity metric that measures real cash in your pocket. TVPI looks better because it includes unrealized gains. GPs know this. That's
TVPI Explained: The PE Metric LPs Use to Grade Fund Returns
TL;DR TVPI (Total Value to Paid-In Capital) measures every dollar of value a private equity fund has generated relative to the capital you invested. It combines the cash you have already received with
TVPI in Private Equity: The Performance Metric That Actually Tells You If You Made Money
According to ILPA's January 2025 Performance Template , every private equity fund reporting to institutional LPs must now disclose TVPI in two ways: with and without the impact of subscription credit...
DPI Is the Only Private Equity Metric That Actually Matters
TL;DR: Distributions as a share of NAV hit 11% in 2024—a record low. Bain's 2026 report confirms the industry is sitting on $3.2 trillion in unrealized value across 29,000 unsold companies. Yet fund
MOIC Explained: Multiple on Invested Capital and Why the Number You See Is Probably Inflated
MOIC Explained: Multiple on Invested Capital and Why the Number You See Is Probably Inflated TL;DR: The gross MOIC a GP quotes in a pitch deck is not the net MOIC you receive as an LP. Standard…
TVPI Explained: What Total Value to Paid-In Capital Tells You About a Private Fund
TVPI Explained: What Total Value to Paid-In Capital Tells You About a Private Fund TLDR: CalPERS's disclosed fund data shows private equity TVPI ranging from 0.3x (near-total loss) to 4.2x within the…
TVPI Explained: What Every LP Needs to Know About This Fund Performance Metric
TL;DR: Cambridge Associates data shows 2018-vintage PE buyout median TVPI sits at 1.72x as of Q4 2024, while top-quartile funds for the same vintage reach 2.35x. TVPI is the fastest read on...
DPI vs TVPI: The PE Metric That Pays Your Bills (One of Them Doesn't)
Here is the number that should keep every private equity LP up at night: half of all PE funds raised between 2015 and 2018 have still not returned investors’ initial capital, according to ILPA d
TVPI Tells You What a Fund Is Worth. It Doesn't Tell You What You'll Get Paid.
A 2019-vintage fund that was showing 3.2x TVPI in early 2022 looked brilliant. By mid-2023, that same fund was sitting at 1.4x. Not a single company had been sold. The GP hadn't made a bad decision in those 18 months....